I am a rocket scientist now! (Doesn't mean I am any smarter than before)

Never in my wildest dreams could I have expected my career to turn out the way it has so far. Ok... A little back story...

I come from a very hard working, lower to mid, middle class family. I was the second person in my direct family (after my mother) to receive a degree from a college. In saying this, I did not expect to be invited to any opportunity usually reserved for the top, best-of-the-best privileged people. That thought was recently shattered in the past few weeks.

As some of you may know, I have been looking for a new job now for about 1.5 years with no real promising offers. Either the offer amount was too low, the work itself did not interest me, or the location was non-ideal. This has driven me to push for ANY opportunity, but also send my resume to places that I didn't think would even consider someone like me. Oh boy I was wrong!

About a month and a half ago I received an email from a hiring manager directly. This rarely happens, usually it is an automated message BEFORE the HR people can even see my info. I was quite excited to see that I had made it through the stringent HR computerized filters. So I started reading the email (mind you I was at work in a meeting with my boss and coworkers) and I verbally shouted "YES!!" and did a did a fist pump...

In the email, I was asked if I would be interested in working on rockets!!! The manager was in need of a handful more engineers to get the project rolling in the right direction and to stay on schedule. We, set up an interview and about a week later I received an offer. Honestly, the offer could have been dirt. I wanted this job SO badly and I accepted.

Now... The present. Its been 2 weeks of rigorous training, long days, and headaches due to information overload. Best decision I have ever made. I don't think I have stopped smiling.

For those of you who are curious, I am now tasked to work on the SLS program. Yes, that one. The biggest, most powerful rocket ever designed. Bringing the US back into the space industry with the capability of deep exploration.

What I have learned from these many months of search is that there is always a place for you in this world that will excite your interest. You just have to be diligent and patient.

This is probably obvious, but I will be a very busy guy for the foreseeable future.